510 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



114. Crataegus venusta Beadl. 



Leaves oval to ovate or occasionally to oblong-ovate, acute, gradually or abruptly nar- 

 rowed and cuneate or rounded at the entire' base, finely serrate above with usually incurved 

 glandular teeth, and frequently slightly and irregularly divided above the middle into 1-3 

 pairs of short broad acute lobes, when they unfold dark bronze color, with a few scattered 

 pale caducous hairs on the upper surface, about half grown when the flowers open from the 

 20th to the end of April, and then yellow-green, smooth and glabrous, and at maturity 

 dark dull green above, pale below, 2f long, and li' wide, ^ ith a stout midrib and 4-7 pairs 

 of thin primary veins; late in the autumn turning, especially those on leading shoots deep 

 orange or scarlet; petioles stout, glandular, more or less winged above, \'-\' in length; 

 leaves at the end of vigorous shoots generally broad-ovate, rounded at base, deeply lobed 

 with broad lobes, and often 3|' long and 3' wide. Flowers 1' in diameter, on short 

 pedicels, in 4-9-flowered compact corymbs, their bracts and bractlets like the inner bud- 



Fig. 466 



scales coarsely glandular-serrate and bright red before falling; calyx-tube broadly obconic, 

 the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, coarsely glandular-serrate often 

 only below the middle; stamens 15-20, usually 15-17; anthers small, pale yellow; styles 

 3-5, surrounded at the base by a ring of pale hairs. Fruit ripening and falling from the 

 1st to the middle of October, on stout pedicels often 1' long, in few-fruited clusters, short- 

 oblong, rounded at the ends, dull red, often with a bright russet face, and marked by occa- 

 sional large dark dots; calyx prominent, with a long tube, and spreading lobes often decidu- 

 ous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 3-5, narrow and 

 acute at base, broad, about \' long. 



A bushy tree, often 25 high, with a short trunk a foot in diameter, furnished like the 

 large branches with innumerable stout much-branched spines frequently 6' long, and 

 slender nearly straight glabrous dark chestnut-brown branchlets, armed with many stout 

 straight or slightly curved dark chestnut-brown shining spines frequently pointing toward 

 the base of the branch, and \\'-%\' long. 



Distribution. Open Oak and Hickory-woods on the dry slopes of Red Mountain in the 

 southern part of the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama. 



115. Crataegus Sargentii Beadl. 



Leaves oblong-ovate to elliptic or rarely to ovate, acute or acuminate at apex, gradually 

 or abruptly cuneate or rounded at the nearly entire base, irregularly doubly serrate above 

 with straight or incurved glandular teeth, and usually irregularly divided into 3 or 4 pairs 



